Me, I enjoy doing the Mad Scientist thing in the kitchen and bar so I don't consider it work.

I agree 100%. For me, this is one of my hobbies and loves. It's great fun making my own mixers for tiki drinks. I've been amazed at how much better my own stuff tastes from the store-bought.

I will say that I love Trader Tiki's cinnamon syrup, but I have never found an orgeat that I like as much as my homemade stuff. I use raw almonds (in bulk from Whole Foods), a syrup of turbinado sugar and water, orange flower water, rose water and almond extact). I do a quick soaking method with the almond meal and heating it up on the stove, letting that sit several hours, then straining and squeezing through cheesecloth. It has an amazing softness and tastes of sweet toasty almonds, caramel and a hint of floral essence.

I used the recipe that Kaiser Penguin posted with a few modifications. I use a lot more almonds, almost twice as much. I blanch the almonds, lightly toast them in the oven and then make a course almond meal/flour by pulsing the toasted, blanched almonds in the food processor. I soaked the almond meal for about 2 hours in a pot with boiled water. I strained through cheesecloth and squeezed, then put the almond milk back into the almond meal solids heated again on the stove, squeezed/strained again without soaking, then I did that all one more time. I added the sugar syrup and essences. Then I made myself a kick-ass Mai Tai that blew my mind.

I totally agree with getting in the kitchen and making your own stuff!
I just finished making a batch of falernum.
I keep commercial orgeat around just in case I run out of homemade.
I think that I would prefer to use commercial orgeat from Torani or Monin and the like over using almond milk and sugar syrup.
I don't want to discourage anyone from experimenting in the kitchen, that is great fun.
That being said, I've tasted all sorts of almond milk products and not one could pass for something similar to the taste of orgeat.
(in my opinion)

Just read this entire very interesting thread. With all the discussion of siphoning, straining, cheesecloth-ing, etc. it occured to me that what I once used in organic chemistry lab might work perfectly and make the extraction/separation process a lot quicker and easier:

and you can select your filter paper by grade to capture just the right sized particulates.

I have not yet tried this myself, but it's high up on my list once I get the chance. Perhaps, some of you would like to test this yourselves before I get around to it.

The most tedious part of making orgeat, the thing that keeps me from making it regularly, is making the almond milk. Blanching the almonds is some work, but it can be kinda fun and therapeutic for some. You can get pre-blanched almonds on the store, but if you want the best orgeat you can possibly make, you need to blanche them just before you make the milk.

I've tried all sorts of things and have improved the process, but having come across soy milk makers, I'm thinking that is the answer I have been seeking. Soy Milk makers advertise that they also make milk form grains and nuts as well.

One of the most crucial aspects of making your own almond milk is to avoid creating microparticles while grinding up the almonds. Those microparticles are able to find their way through just about every straining device or filter you can effectively use, thereby, causing the orgeat to make drinks a bit cloudy; which ain't right.

My latest effort has been to grind the freshly blanched almonds in a manual food grinder, slowly so that the resulting chunks do not become reground and create microparticles. Royal pain in the ass of course, but necessary.

These soy milk makers grind the nuts while they make the milk and, apparently, have no issues with microparticles, so the milk comes out just right.

Here is a link to a comparison among several popular brands. I would have liked to have tested this myself before passing this nugget along to you, but that could take a while.

On 2010-05-20 07:52, The Gnomon wrote:snip One of the most crucial aspects of making your own almond milk is to avoid creating microparticles while grinding up the almonds. Those microparticles are able to find their way through just about every straining device or filter you can effectively use, thereby, causing the orgeat to make drinks a bit cloudy; which ain't right.
snip

I have to respectfully disagree with you.
The particulate matter that makes it into homemade orgeat is the point.
You certainly don't want too much or you will be chewing on almond bits.
The cloudiness of homemade orgeat is mimicked in the commercial brands with all kinds of things to make the orgeat cloudy, such as fractionated coconut and ester gum.
If homemade orgeat makes a cocktail a little extra cloudy or frothy so be it.
After thinking about it so much I need to go and make a mai tai now.
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I'd be interested on your take on the difference between your extract orgeat and the orgeat you made by straining almonds. Was there a big difference in taste? If tasted side by side blind tasting do you believe you could say one was superior to the other?

I'd be interested on your take on the difference between your extract orgeat and the orgeat you made by straining almonds. Was there a big difference in taste? If tasted side by side blind tasting do you believe you could say one was superior to the other?

Yes, and yes. Easily.

But this won't be tasted side-by-side - it will be tasted in a Mai Tai, right? In that case this difference is more subtle. I could probably tell the difference in a side-by-side test of two otherwise identical Mai Tais. But I doubt that I could tell the difference if I started the night with the real stuff and then switched to a lesser mix.
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Long time no see. Hope all is well. You might want to check out the soy milk makers I tracked down. Might be the answer to effortless almond milk.

Quote:

On 2010-05-20 07:52, The Gnomon wrote:

These soy milk makers grind the nuts while they make the milk and, apparently, have no issues with microparticles, so the milk comes out just right.

Here is a link to a comparison among several popular brands. I would have liked to have tested this myself before passing this nugget along to you, but that could take a while.

At this point I am using the nylon filter bags you unearthed some time ago and put that down into my Progressive International Salad Spinner (huge open area inside for the bag to spin; lots of clearance, no significant interference). I borrow a manual crank food mill (Oxo) to carefully "grate" the almonds without making any microparticles. It's a pain in the ass, but effective. You have to grind slowly to avoid microparticles; but that only works when your nuts are moist.

Some of these soy milk makers sound pretty good, so I'm thinking this might be the answer. Not sure when I'll get around to checking it out myself, so I tossed it out there as something others could try if they didn't want to wait around for me.

I used the Ahu orgeat #1 recipe over the weekend as a first attempt and was really surprised. The only orgeat I can find around here is from Collins Bros, and it as a syrupy, bland mess at best. This home made stuff is far beyond the store bought. I really enjoy it but next time I think I will cut down on the amount of rosewater used.
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